Travel Tips: Disneyland? Just Go!

With the right travel tips, Disneyland is one of the best experiences you can have with your children.

There is a lot of hype about it, and for good reason, but a bit of research and careful planning can enhance the Disneyland experience.

Here are the Disneyland travel tips you need now:

You can pay for a VIP tour and literally go on every ride in one day, not que for anything and meet as many characters as you wish. I strongly recommend this, as it is without doubt the single best way to see Disneyland. There are no ques, VIP access to the characters, and a guy who knows EVERYTHING there is to know about the park. Cost? Minimum US$315 an hour depending on the time of year, and you must pay a minimum of six hours.

There is a fantastic Disneyland app with a map of the place and location of characters kept up to date regularly. Upload this as soon as you decide to go as it will instantly give you a feel of the place.

Everything is expensive. It is pricey to get there, stay there, and even the tickets walk in the gates (US$99 for adults, US$93 for children 3-9). Everything in there from food to Minnie Mouse ears will cost you a lot. Disney’s parks and resorts made $3.8 billion in revenue in 2015. It’s no wonder. The great news – air is free 🙂 We made sure we had a big breakfast before we left the hotel and took some healthy snacks with us.

You need more than one day. There are two parks in California – Disneyland and Disney California Adventure Park and being brutally honest, you really only need to go to Disneyland. There’s plenty in that theme park alone. I mean, you’re there to see Mickey and the gang and have that once-in-a-lifetime Disney experience. You don’t need to overload it, especially on the first visit.

Everyone becomes a kid in Disneyland. If you stay at one of the 3 Disneyland hotels, which are walking distance to the park, you are allowed access to the park an hour before it opens, every second day, alternating with Disney California Adventure Park. Well worth it.

If you can afford it, stay at Th Disneyland hotel on site. This brings loads of additional benefits. You will get fast passes to use in the park to get on rides faster, as well as an exclusive hour in the parks in the morning before the public is allowed in.

Plus the hotel offers breakfast with the characters, as well as gorgeous touches like Disney music in your room before bed. (Trust me, when you’re there, it doesn’t seem kitsch).

Unlike the majority of Australia’s theme parks, there are healthy food options within the parks themselves, including fresh fruit, frozen bananas and hummus and crackers. Michelle Obama was one of the US influencers to insist on healthy alternatives.

Those Ears!

There really is something magical about the place, which words can’t quite capture – and which gets bigger the longer you are away from it. Meeting the characters (i.e. Mickey, Minnie, and the gang) will become an obsession, I don’t care how old you are, whether you like them or if you have young children. They’re absolute royalty when in Disneyland.

The characters are just brilliant.

Next time, I would choose to do this for one day, and return to LA afterwards.

There is an app with EVERYTHING on it from the queing times of rides to where the characters are, ride closures, everything. You need this when there. The app is simply called Disneyland.

The night parade and subsequent fireworks display are much better than you may think. The Parade is magical, with gorgeous floats lit up, characters galore, music, dancing and a whole lot of fun. The fireworks rival Sydney’s on New Years Eve – yep, that good.

Walt Disney, the man, is worth reading about before you go, as the park and the growth of Disneyland the business is all down to this one man who had a dream, and the park honours him at every turn, as they should. It’s what dreams are made of, especially in America.

Take photos of everything, as the experience in hindsight carries a lot more weight than it does when your’e actually there lining up, waiting for characters and trying to keep everyone in your group happy. Just don’t take your selfie stick, as they are banned. Odd – I know!